[WSIS CS-Plenary] On-line access to government services - and alternatives

Sat Aug 23 16:53:16 BST 2003

Thanks for calling our attention to this evolution. This can 
be put alongside the recent decision by the US government to 
request visas for visitors who did not need it before but do 
not have "machine-readable passports" (for more info, see : 
http://www.shrmglobal.org/function/immigration/fd061703.htm).

This connects directly to the notion of inclusiveness in 
the "information society". A "digital apartheid" could 
emerge - unvoluntarily - if some measures are not taken to 
guarantee not only access to the modern means of 
communication for those who want them, but also to allow 
those who can't - or do not want - to still be part of the 
community. 

It is in the nature of the present evolution that some 
people in less developed countries take fully part in the 
information society whereas some low-income or aged ones in 
highly developed countries stay out. As a result, cyberspace 
is becoming a physical "cyberland" with invisible but very 
real borders, a society in itself, spreading all over the 
globe, albeit unevenly, in a sort of fractal way. And WSIS 
is partly about how to define the governance of this new 
space and community. 

But the biggest issue is how this "community of the 
connected" integrates with the non-digital world and how 
open it is to those who are not part of it - by accident or 
by choice. 

If the information society becomes a community gated by 
virtual walls, excluding as "inferiors" the un-wired and 
creating special lines in airports and public places for the 
digital elite while others have to queue for hours whith no 
attention, then the promises of this technological 
revolution will be betrayed.

The notion of an information society does not mean that 
everybody should be connected or rejected. But rather that 
nobody should be prevented from joining in or opting out. 
Respect for diversity is at stake here as much as in the 
cultural sphere.  

Stangely enough, this brings connexions to unexpected themes 
like the right not to recieve spam, the right to remain 
unreachable outside of office hours ... or the desire to 
still read a book instead of an online version.

This only reminds us that the whole WSIS exercise is about 
coexistence and respect - or at least it should be. The 
issues above are only an illustration of the many forms this 
challenge can take.   

Bertrand de La Chapelle
OpenWSIS
lachapelle @openwsis.org

---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 13:57:18 -0400
>From: Kenan Jarboe <kpjarboe at athenaalliance.org>  
>Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] On-line access to government 
services - and alternatives  
>To: plenary at wsis-cs.org
>
>   A routine administrative announcement by the US
>   State Department yesterday highlighted an issue that
>   I believe has not been adequately addressed: the
>   right to access information and government services
>   in numerous formats - including non-digital format. 
>   Yesterday, the State Department announced that it
>   would no longer accept paper applications for its
>   "diversity visa" program (this is the annual visa
>   lottery) (see State Department press release: 
>   http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/23329.htm). 
>   All applications must be submitted through the State
>   Department web site and include a digital photo.  As
>   some immediately pointed out, this places those who
>   do not have easy access to the Internet (especially
>   in poor nations) at a major disadvantage in applying
>   for the program.
>
>   The thrust of the WSIS is to increase the
>   utilization of ICT for a number of beneficial
>   purposes: poverty reduction, health care, education
>   etc.  However, the function of  ICT is to increase
>   communications and access to information.  What if
>   ICT is used to decrease access -- not simply through
>   means of censorship -- but inadvertently by shutting
>   down other forms of information access?
>
>   Unfortunately, this substitution process seems to be
>   exactly what is happening in the push for
>   e-government.  By putting everything on-line and
>   only on-line, governments (with the best of
>   intentions of improving service and cutting
>   administrative overhead) shut down existing
>   non-digital forms of access. 
>
>   There has been some focus with the PrepCom process
>   on the importance of traditional media and community
>   media --and on multiple access points to the ICT
>   network.  My point is different: that access to
>   public information and government services must be
>   available to citizens in a format that they choose
>   -- for some (like me) it may be on-line, for others
>   it may be paper.  The issue is not just access to
>   the ICT network, but the preservation of existing
>   channels of access to information and government
>   services.  Not everyone will ever be "wired" --
>   either by choice or by circumstance.  [The
>   importance of maintaining alternative mechanisms was
>   a lesson that US banks learned the hard way when
>   they attempted to switch to an all ATM system and
>   reduce or eliminate tellers -- and their customers
>   revolted.]
>
>   Somewhere in the Declaration we need a statement of
>   the principle that ICT should be use to enhance and
>   supplement existing access to information and
>   government services and not substitute for existing
>   forms of access.  Otherwise, we risk creating an
>   information superhighway system where the only way
>   to get to government services is by the
>   ICT-equivalent of having to drive on the autobahn in
>   a Porsche when we also need the information and
>   communications access equivalents of taking the bus,
>   riding your bicycle or simply walking.
>
>   Our focus must continue to be on information and
>   communications -- not simply on information and
>   communications technologies.  I would submit that
>   there is a big difference between the two.
>
>   Ken Jarboe
>
>   Kenan Patrick Jarboe, Ph.D.
>   Athena Alliance
>   911 East Capitol Street, SE
>   Washington, DC  20003-3903
>   (202) 547-7064
>   kpjarboe at athenaalliance.org
>   http://www.athenaalliance.org